


the road outside my house is paved with good intentions

by ladybex



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, BB8 is a cat, Ben is very annoyed and needs a nap, F/M, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Meet-Cute, Mistaken Identity, Prompt Fill, Rey is cat sitting, THEY WERE NEIGHBORS!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-21
Updated: 2018-05-21
Packaged: 2019-05-09 16:40:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14719763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladybex/pseuds/ladybex
Summary: Ben didn’t know his neighbor. He had been out of town visiting his parents when the guy moved in, but over the past few weeks he had been able to work out his neighbor was named Ryan and was currently a university student who also worked some weird hours just like Ben, because he could hear this dude coming and going at all hours of day through the paper-thin walls. As far as he could tell, the cat was a recent addition, one that wouldn’t have been so hard to smuggle in considering the crazy hours his neighbor kept.The first night he was woken by the infernal meowing, he simply convinced himself that this kid had taken in a stray for the night and was planning on dropping it off at the cat sanctuary in the morning.By forth night, he had concluded that the delinquent next door just didn’t give a fuck about the sanity of his neighbor and was hoping to slowly drive him insane. Later, after several cups of coffee, he realized that was just the lack of sleep induced delirium that was talking, but still, the cat had to go.





	the road outside my house is paved with good intentions

**Author's Note:**

> title taken from "Hum Hallelujah" by Fall Out Boy

He swore to himself that if his neighbors cat woke him up one more time, he was going to report him to the complex manager.  
  
Pets were against the buildings policies, as it was explicitly stated in the leasing contract all renters had to sign before moving in. If he wasn’t allowed to bring home one of the puppies he had played with at the local animal shelters adoption fundraiser in the park he takes his daily runs in a couple of weeks ago, there’s no reason his dick head neighbor should be allowed to keep a secret cat without repercussions.  
  
But for some reason, after a weeks’ worth of interrupted sleep, he couldn’t quite bring himself to go to the manager to make a complaint.  
  
Ben didn’t know his neighbor. He had been out of town visiting his parents when the guy moved in, but over the past few weeks he had been able to work out his neighbor was named Ryan and was currently a university student who also worked some weird hours just like Ben, because he could hear this dude coming and going at all hours of day through the paper-thin walls. As far as he could tell, the cat was a recent addition, one that wouldn’t have been so hard to smuggle in considering the crazy hours his neighbor kept.  
  
The first night he was woken by the infernal meowing, he simply convinced himself that this kid had taken in a stray for the night and was planning on dropping it off at the cat sanctuary in the morning.  
  
By forth night, he had concluded that the delinquent next door just didn’t give a fuck about the sanity of his neighbor and was hoping to slowly drive him insane. Later, after several cups of coffee, he realized that was just the lack of sleep induced delirium that was talking, but still, the cat had to go.  
  
“Just tell your building manager and get over it Ben,” his business partner, Christie Phasma, told him in her no nonsense manner.  
  
Phas, as he affectionately started calling her years ago in university, stood as tall as him barefoot, wore her platinum blonde hair in a bob and had the most striking blue eyes you ever did see.  For years people assumed they would eventually be a thing, but as it happened one of the many things they had in common was their mutual appreciation of the female body, so that ship sunk before it even had a chance to set sail.  
  
“Yeah but, shouldn’t I give this kid a chance to get rid of the thing?” he counters from his own desk in their very small, but private, office space in a nondescript midtown rental building.  
  
Owning a start-up was grueling, but between his background in programming and Phas’ degree in business management, their food delivery app, _First Order_ , was doing exceptionally well for only going live a few months ago.  
  
They even hired their first employee, a young graduate student named Finn who was getting his Masters in business and had spent his teens and under graduate working in various sections of the food service industry.  
  
“Like a courtesy knock on the door? Hey man, I’m telling management you have a cat, or you can get rid of it sort of thing?”  
  
“Yeah, exactly that. I’ve never even met Ryan, but I know he’s a young dude and I don’t want to get him kicked out of his place you know? I just want to get a decent night’s sleep.” Ben says with a sigh as he runs his hand through his hair.  
  
As the two of them continue to discuss the appropriate course of action, Finn comes walking in the office, arms piled high with the take-out Chinese he left to go pick up for their lunches. Finn was a nice kid; incredibly friendly and whip-smart, and while he wasn’t getting paid the big bucks, because none of them were currently, he didn’t seem to mind doing all the things an unpaid intern would have done on top of his actual work as well, picking up lunch included.  
  
“Are you talking about Ben’s cat problem?”  
  
“Yes. Did you remember soy sauce packets?” Phas asks as she digs around the brown carry out bag for her beef and broccoli.  
  
Finn reaches into his leather jacket and pulls out a white plastic bag stuffed full of various condiments for their lunches and tosses it towards the blonde, who catches it easily before digging out a soy sauce packet with a look of victory.  
  
“I’d offer to take the cat off his hands if that’s the problem, BB8 could use a sibling, but our apartment building is being fumigated this week, so Poe and I have been at a hotel,” Finn explains over a mouthful of low-mein noodles.  
  
“Where is BB then?” Ben asks curiously.  
  
Finn and his boyfriend Poe own a very large orange cat named BB8, short for Barnaby Bartholomew the 8th for some god forsaken reason, who they doted on as if he was a real child and not just a pet.  
  
“Oh, he’s been staying with a former classmate of mine. She loves animals and said she didn’t mind having him hang out for the week,” Finn tells him with a shrug before turning back to his work on the screen in front of him.  
  
“Well, I guess if this demon spawn cat wakes me up again tonight, I’ll just go talk to Ryan,” Ben decides as he piles orange chicken on to his plate.  
  
“And if the asshole doesn’t do anything about it, call your super. I can’t have you falling asleep while coding every day, I’m not paying you to sleep at your desk all day Solo,” Phas says sternly, but the grin she flashes Ben shows him she’s just teasing.  
  
“It was one time!”  
  
***  
  
The red lights from his digital clock read 2:47AM when he hears the nightly howling from the secret cat next door. He tries to drown it out by stuffing his head under a pillow, really he does, but it does absolutely nothing to keep the noise out and he finds himself wide awake when the clock rolls over to 3:00AM.  
  
Throwing off the blankets and grabbing a black tshirt to throw on, Ben slips his feet into a pair of well worn house shoes before he heads to his front door with the intention knocking on the door next to his and telling the jerk that lives there that his illegal pet needs to go before he calls the super.  
  
He knocks on the door with a bit of impatience, arms crossed and foot taping against the carpeted hall floor as he waits for this Ryan guy to open the door.  
  
But it’s not a guy that opens the door, in fact it’s one of the prettiest girls Ben’s ever laid his eyes on and obviously she must be this guys girlfriend or something, because she wears a loose pair of mens boxers and a camisole as pajamas that is just on the right side of indecent and definitely not something say a sister would wear crashing at her brothers.  
  
“Is uh, Ryan here?” he asks awkwardly, his left hand rubbing the nape of neck uncomfortably.  
  
The girl looks confused, and cocks here head to the side.  
  
“Who?” she asks as she crosses her arms.  
  
“Oh uh. Ryan? The kid that lives here? We’ve never actually met, but I’m Ben, his neighbor,” he says as he holds out his hand to shake the girls.  
  
She glances down at it and then back up to Bens face, a knowing look on her face.  
  
“Uh. I think you are a little confused Ben. I’m Rey, and this is my apartment,” she tells him.  
  
_Rey._  
  
His neighbor was a 20 something female university student named Rey, _not Ryan_ , and a very attractive one at that. How the fuck did he miss that he’d been living next to a girl all these weeks?  
  
“Oh my god. Rey. Rey not Ryan. Fuck. Where did I hear Ryan from?” he asks her with genuine curiosity, all thoughts on the criminal cat having fled his brain.  
  
“My buddy Poe calls me Rey Anne sometimes, even though that’s not my middle name, he says it sound better. You probably just over heard us through the walls. So uh, is there a reason you came knocking on my door at 3am?”  
  
Oh yeah, that stinking cat.  
  
“Uhhh, yeah, um. So, I know you have a cat in there, and they are against building policy. I don’t want to be a jerk, but I haven’t gotten a good night’s sleep all week with that thing meowing, so it needs to go,” Ben tells her, though his voice lacks its usual menace.    
  
The girl just looks at him with wide eyes and has the grace to blush.  
  
“Uhhh…” she stammers before the culprit in question lets out a wail from behind the door.  
  
“I really don’t want to call the super. The guys a dick and I’m not trying to get you kicked out of your place okay, but that criminal has got to go,” Ben insists as the cat in question pushes its way between Rey’s ankles and lets out another ear-piercing meow.  
  
It’s takes him all of fourteen seconds to realize who’s cat it is, the distinct orange and white markings and its butterball body are a dead giveaway. He’s going to _murder_ Finn on Monday morning.  
  
Rey seems to notice the way Ben has zoned in on BB8 and picks up the scoundrel to wrap a protective arm around it’s fluffy, fat body.  
  
“Listen, Ben is it? BB8 is only here until the morning. My friends place was being fumigated, I offered to house him for the week and completely forgot about the pet policy. I’m terribly sorry he’s been a little rowdy, he just misses his dads,” Rey says apologetically as she gives the tubby cat an affectionate head rub.  
  
“I know this cat. His owner works for me. Tell Finn he owes me a weeks’ worth of coffee when he picks his monster up in the morning and try to keep him quiet for the rest of the night, please?” he tells Rey as he bites back a yawn and heads back into his apartment.  
  
“Ben?” the girl calls softly from where she stands next to her door, loud enough to give him pause.  
  
When he turns around she’s wearing the softest smile and it makes Ben’s heart stutter momentarily.  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“Thanks for not calling Hux on me, that guy is a nightmare and I really can’t afford to be looking for a new place right now,” Rey tells him with small wave before she turns and shuts the door behind her.  
  
Damn, this girl is going to be a problem.

**Author's Note:**

> my Reylo prompt blog is @forcebondbensolo on tumblr, but you can always catch me at @bex-xo on my main where I blog about everything! 
> 
> edit: tweet me over at @bexbex_xo :) 
> 
> thanks for reading and let me know what you think? :)


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